If your dog regularly struggles with excitement around other dogs, ask yourself some questions?
Does my dog regularly go to daycare of dog parks? If yes, your dog may only know “dogs” as fun things to chase and play with. I’ve seen many clients and their dogs struggle with just walking by another dog on a walk because of not implementing a balanced lifestyle when it comes to playing around dogs.
Just because your dog sees another dog does not mean it needs to get overstimulated by the thought of potentially playing with that dog.
This is also a common problem. I see regularly with clients who allow their dogs to say hello to every single dog they pass on walks. there’s a huge difference between healthy, socialization, and too much socialization.
We should all strive to build neutrality within our dogs. Too many owners confuse overstimulation with happiness, and this leads to larger problems down the road…reactivity, poor impulse control, tantrums.
Instead, try working on obedience drills around other dogs. Work on walking by dogs while your dog is in heel. Is your dog making regular eye contact with you, or dragging you all over the place? Work on recalls with your dog around other dogs. Or you are the most relevant thing in your dogs life, recalling them to you should be an easy choice for them.
💫DIRECTION OVER CORRECTION 💫
Fizz can struggle with reactivity at times, so I took this opportunity to work on neutrality while a dog from behind a fence barked at us.
Before we even encountered this dog, I was already working on engagement, eye contact, “yes work” and neutrality. On our first pass by the dog, I put myself in between Fizz and the trigger, and he did incredible. During our second pass by, I had Fizz closer to the dog behind the gate, and although this did prove a little more challenging, he still kept moving, never lunged or lost control, and offered eye contact once we were beyond the house.
Make sure you are training FOR THE MOMENT…Not IN THE MOMENT. The prep work I did leading up to this encounter is what helped make this a success.
💫 TRAINING LOOPS 💫
A training loop is a compilation of different commands integrated into one another to make a simple, but effective way to teach obedience, or other forms of dog training.
The loop I created for Maggie in this video consisted of three different commands : “break” which is her release word, “come” which is the command I use to call a dog to me, and “place” which is a physical target that is a different height, or texture from the ground you were currently on.
By keeping the loop simple and brief, Maggie is able to pick up on the queues and commands very quickly and starts to predict the command I am going to ask of her.
This is a great way to incorporate multiple commands into one training session if you are short on time, but this is also great for building clear and concise habits through training.
BONUS: once your dog begins to predict the next command, this is a great time to switch up the order of your training loop. This prevent our dogs from slipping into cruise control, and ultimately keeps them dialed in and listening to what we are going to ask of them next.
Instead of bringing dogs into our chaos- what if we let them show us how to slow down?
When our dog trusts and respects us, they will begin to get on the same page with us.
Once on that page, we can begin to guide them to better things.
Never underestimate the power a good wall or fence can have on your training. Dog training is equal parts science and creativity.
